The Defense Department announced last week that it plans to open more than 14,000 military jobs to women that had been off-limits to them, at least on paper, because of restrictions on their service in combat.

Pentagon leaders acknowledged that the policy change was catching up with reality, because women have long since proved themselves in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Changing sentiments and the wartime needs of military commanders accelerated an expansion of responsibilities for women that had been growing for decades.

The lack of clear front lines against an insurgency, manpower shortages at the height of the conflicts and cultural sensitivities of Iraqi and Afghan civilians that barred men from performing some critical functions in the war zone helped spur the transition, along with complaints that combat restrictions unfairly limited career advancement for women.

The result is that today female service members fight by land, air and sea.

Officially, they have been allowed to serve in air combat and on warships since the mid-1990s. Unofficially, through an administrative sleight of hand that has them “attached” but not formally assigned, they also serve with all-male ground combat units, walking on patrol with the infantry and supporting special operations personnel in the field.

For example, in October when Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer Domeij, a 29-year-old Army Ranger from San Diego, was killed by a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, a female National Guard soldier died with him. 1st Lt. Ashley White, 24, was attached to the unit as a Cultural Support Team member, U.S. Special Operations Command announced.

Considering the impending policy change, Staff Sgt. Brooke Parras, 32, an Iraq War veteran and platoon commander with the California National Guard border support mission ending in San Diego County, said, “The verbiage has caught up with the times.”

Yes
59% (433)

No
41% (303)

The U.S. military’s active duty force of about 1.4 million troops includes about 205,000 women. More than 140 female service members have been killed and 860 wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is no safe spot for them in the war zone. Bases are rocketed. Supposedly friendly forces turn their guns on trainers. Roads are pocked with hidden explosives.

The main trigger-puller jobs in the ground combat arms will remain closed to women pending further review. While the debate over ending that final frontier continues, female troops are exposing themselves to mortal danger every day in the war zone.

“Women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military’s mission,” demonstrating their ability to serve in an expanding number of roles on and off the battlefield, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

Here are some of those women from San Diego County installations who set aside personal safety to serve their nation at war.

Attack helicopter pilot

Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour, the nation’s first female African American combat pilot. Armour served two tours in Iraq flying Super Cobra Attack Helicopters and received a presidential citation.— Courtesy photo

Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour, the nation’s first female African American combat pilot. Armour served two tours in Iraq flying Super Cobra Attack Helicopters and received a presidential citation.
/ Courtesy photo

Vernice Armour, 38, a Marine veteran previously assigned to Camp Pendleton, had always been an adrenaline junkie. In 1999, when she couldn’t get a slot in flight school for fighter jets, she studied nonstop so she could be first in line for the AH-1 helicopter gunship. “I said if I have to fly helos I want to fly the baddest thing out there, and that was Cobras,” she recalled.